My Season Four
by EvilRegalGleek
Summary: How events could have gone differently after the illegal matchrace.
1. Chase

Previously on Wildfire…

_Kris (to Matt)"I don't want Junior! I'm with YOU!"_

_Todd (to Jean and Pablo) "You make a great team. Like chocolate and chips"_

_Dani (to Gillian) "Oh hey-you made it! I was starting to worry!"_

_Gillian "Can I chase you?"_

_Junior "Catch me."_

_[Kris getting bumped during the Bristol Stakes]_

_"There's no way to prove that Wildfire could've beat Avatar"_

_Sheik Omar "I have a group ready to finance a rematch between Avatar and Wildfire."_

_Kris "An illegal match race?"_

_Kris "Come on, Wildfire. Do it for Raintree!"_

_[Wildfire crosses the finish line]_

_Jean (to Kris) "The fact that you don't understand why I would never take that money is more disappointing to me than anything else."_

_Kris (to the racing board) "Here's the money. I'm the one who stole the horse. If I plead guilty, will you leave the Ritters and Pablo alone?"_

_"Your jockey's license will be revoked in all fifty states."_

_"What about them?"_

_"We won't pursue the matter."_

_Ken (to Dani) "They can't let us off scott-free, and Junior doesn't have a license, so you'll have to take one for the team"_

_Dani (to Junior) "My half of the farm is useless without a racing license. I'll sign my share of the farm over to you. Good luck."_

_Jean (to Kris) "The fact that you did this is why I love you. It's also why you can't stay here anymore."_

_Matt "Kris!"_

_Kris "Let go of me, Matt! I've hurt your family enough!"_

_Matt (to Jean) "You sold the horses without asking me?"_

_Jean "I did what I had to do."_

_Matt "I'm gonna rebuild this place. I'll get the horses back. I'll get Wildfire back. And I'll get Kris back because I need her!"_

_Kris (to person in car) "What are you doing here?"_

Jean closed her eyes so that she wouldn't see her older son's disappearing back. "Obviously, some big changes are going to need to be made around here," she muttered to herself. "We'll have to come up with another business to open in place of horse racing, for one."

Todd blinked. "Mom, that's not funny."

"I wasn't joking," said Jean. "I'm not sure yet, but I'm thinking that our best course of action might be to turn Raintree into a dude ranch."

Todd's eyes widened. "A _dude ranch_?"  
Matt whipped around. "Mom, you did NOT just say that!" said Matt. "If Henry was here, can you imagine how he'd react?"  
Jean closed her eyes for a moment. "Well, he's not here. And I have to do what's best for our family. And right now, I think that would be opening a Dude Ranch at Raintree. And Todd, you know that boarding school that you said your friends were going to? Maybe we should check it out."  
"Okay, that does it!" said Matt. "First you get rid of Kris, then you get rid of the horses, now you want to get rid of Todd…what's next, you kick me out and decide to, oh, burn the place down and put up a gas station convenience store where the track used to be?"  
Jean smacked her hand down on the table in front of her in vain. "Matt, we have to be sensible here!"  
"Yes, we do!" said Matt. "And we're going to start by getting Wildfire back, and then Flame, and then some new horses. And hopefully some boarders. I'll train the horses, and Kris will ride them. Just like always. We are NOT sending Todd away, we are NOT giving up on horse racing, and we are NOT opening a DUDE RANCH! And about Kris…I love her! I _won't_ let her go!" He started marching in the direction of his truck.

At Davis Farms, Gillian stood in the barn near Reliant's stall. "Guess we'd better get you ready for our trip back to England." Then she thought of the long treck that Reliant would have to make across the country and then across the Atlantic by ship. "On second thought, maybe you're better off if I find a home for you here." She sighed and put her head against the stallion's forehead. "I don't want to leave you. I don't want to leave my friends, or my jumping horse or…"

_Or Junior._

Gillian's head jerked up. Had she really just thought that. Had that really just gone through her head?

No, impossible. It couldn't be that she and Junior were meant to be together. There was a reason that Danni had stepped out just as he was about to get into the pool with her. There was a reason that the Janie Jumper doll had been so ugly. There was a reason that Kris had won the illegal match race.

Right?

"Hey, Gillian?" Junior called into the barn. "Matt just called. Have you seen Kris or Dani?"

For a brief moment, all Gillian could think of was about how much she loved the sound of his voice. Then she let herself realize what he'd just said. "No, I haven't seen them."

"I'm going out to look," said Junior. "Join me?"

Gillian paused again when she realized that was exactly what she had said to _him_ the night of O's party right before Dani ruined the moment.

_Get a grip, Gillian!_ she thought to herself. _Dani and Kris are missing!_

"Of course I'll help you," said Gillian. Together, they started off in the direction of his silver Porsche.

"Hey, Junior?" said Ken. "Can I talk to you for a second? It'll be brief. All I need you to do is go over about twelve different forms with me, give Kelly Farms a call about that two-year-old they've been trying to sell, and then look online for three new horse trailers for us to buy."

"No can do, Dad," said Junior. "Dani and Kris are missing.

"They'll turn up," said Ken, as if he were talking about his car keys. "Now, about this horse, he's high-strung, but I think he has real…"  
"Dad," said Junior. "I'm going out to look for Dani and Kris."  
"Oh great, you're not still thinking about her, are you?" said Ken.  
"Not at all," said Junior. "I just want to make sure they're ok. Don't you?"  
Ken smiled as if he were talking to a little kid who was worried about something ridiculous. "I'm sure everything's fine. But if you really want to look, go right ahead. But don't forget, Junior. You have a horse farm to run."

"Don't worry," said Junior. "I'll be back soon. I hope." With Gillian at his side, he hopped into his car and turned the key in the ignition.

Somewhere along the highway, Pablo was driving along in his truck. He was supposed to be thinking about what new horse shoes to buy for Avatar, but he couldn't seem to get Kris out of his head. "I was way too hard on her", he thought. _When you stole this horse, you turned back the clock._ How could he say that to her? She had only done it because she loved Raintree and the Ritters so much. And as mad as he still was about the match race in it's own right, it wasn't fair that most of the reason he'd yelled at Kris was because she'd upset the woman he was in love with. Jean hadn't noticed how she felt about him when he'd tried to make her jealous by leaving his door unlocked the nights that he spent with Carrie, she hadn't noticed when he'd threatened to leave Raintree if she married Ken Davis, and she certainly wasn't going to notice now. Kris hadn't noticed either, but she knew more about him than anyone else in his life did. Now that he thought about it, Kris and Wildfire were the closest thing he had to family.

"Pompous morons," Dani muttered to herself as she drummed her fingers on the wheel. "Complete and utter pompous morons. I hope I never see any of them ever again. Especially not Matt. Kris can _have_ him. Hell, she can have all of them! Matt, Junior, Gillian, Wildfire, Jean and Pablo, my Dad…not that he'd want her anyway…" Dani's rant was interrupted by the sound of her pathetically cheerful generic cell phone ring tone and wondered what moron was calling her this time. It wasn't Junior, because she'd made his ring tone "It's My Life". It wasn't Matt either, because she'd given him a ring tone of "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" the day she saw him making out with Gillian in the elevator, and thought it fit even more now that he was with Kris. The only other person who Dani had even given their own ringtone in their phone to was RJ. His ring tone was "Cowboy Cassanova" even though he wasn't one. She had been planning on pretending to lose her phone in his trailer sometime and asking him to call it for her so that he could hear it and they could laugh about it. Now that was never going to happen.

"I HATE YOU!" Danni screamed to her cell phone. "I hate EVERY SINGLE LIVING PERSON on this fucking contact list!" Then she rolled down her window to throw her cell phone out onto the high way, but her hand froze when she recognized the number up on the screen.

"Well," said Dani. "I never expected to hear from _you _again as long as I lived."

The person on the end of the line didn't waste any time. "What the hell is wrong with you? You called the police to stop an illegal match race and hide it from the racing board? Are you out of your mind?"

"Maybe," said Dani. "I'm also out of Davis Farms. I signed my shares over to Junior and left. What do you want, O?"

"I want to know _exactly_ what happened," said Sheik Omar. "I think you still owe me that much. What did the racing board do after you called them?"

"Dad talked them into dropping all the other charges if they took away my racing license," said Dani. "Junior and Gillian both got off scott-free, even though I wasn't even _there_."

"Okay, Dani, calm down," said Sheik O.

"And you know what else?" said Dani, her voice rising. "You know what dad's _exact_ words were? 'How dare you two pull a stunt like this behind my back?' Okay, we didn't! Junior did! Behind _both_ our backs! What's more, I'll bet that if Dad _had _known what was going on, he would've totally been on board with it! Yes! This is _exactly_ the kind of thing that he likes to get involved in! Did I ever tell you that he drugged a horse of mine right before a race that Kris was riding in and didn't even tell me? They both could have _died._"

"Okay, okay, I get it, you're pissed at your dad," said Sheik O. "What happened at Raintree?"

"Who cares?" snapped Dani.

"_I_ do," said Sheik. "And if you can't tell me, I'm about to go find out."

Dani sighed. "I honestly don't know."

"Okay," said Sheik. "_Thanks_."

"You're welcome," said Dani. But he had already hung up on her.

"What are you doing here?" said Kris. "Don't you realized that by listening to you, I just lost everything?"  
"I know," said Sheik Omar. "I'll help you if you get in."  
Kris eyed him suspiciously. Why in the world should she trust his man? Because of his plan, she had just lost her home, her family, her horses, Matt…  
"Come on, Kris," said Sheik. "What have you got to lose?"


	2. Chance

Kris sat in the back of Sheik O's limo next to him as he made phone calls to various clients about business meetings and barely glanced up when he suddenly leapt out of the car and walked towards Dani's. She heard Dani screaming at O, then him shouting at her, and then both of them came back over and climbed into the car. Dani made a disgusted face as she glanced at Kris sitting next to her. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I honestly have no idea," said Kris. Then as the limo sped off, the two girls sat next to each other in silence.

"Hey, is that Junior's car we just saw go past?" said Kris.  
"Yeah," said Dani. "He must be worried sick about us. Or at least you, since obviously he doesn't care about me at all."  
Kris's cell phone buzzed and she flipped it open to check. "Don't tell me Matt's trying to call you again," said Danni. "That's like twenty times in one hour."  
"Twenty-seven, but who's counting?" said Kris. "Actually, that was a text from Pablo. He wants to talk to me in a few days."  
"Don't even think about calling either of them," said Shiek. "Or Junior, or anybody else. In fact, it might be best of you would just give me your phone right now. Remember, this will only work if no one knows where you are." Kris bit her lip, shut her phone off, and hesitantly handed it to Sheik O. "I promise you, I can get you back your family, your home, your horse, your life, everything. Just trust me."

"I don't want my family back," mumbled Dani bitterly.

"And I never said I'd do a damn thing for you," said O, looking at her frankly. "I said we had some business to discuss."

"Hey, I told you, I've suffered _just _as much as she has in all of this!" yelled Dani.

"Because you're the one who blew the whistle," said O. "I had everything under control, and you brought this on yourself and all of us, so don't you dare come crying to me."

"Where are we going?" asked Kris quietly. She hadn't felt this uncertain about her life since the day Pablo had brought her to live at Raintree.  
"There's a little place I own called Desert Springs," said Shiek O. "I'm taking you both there to stay while we sort this whole thing out. No one will know where you girls are except me and all my employees." Then he turned to Kris. "Six months should be time enough for the dust to settle and for me to arrange for your comeback."  
"Wait a second," said Dani. "You're telling me that I have to stay somewhere with her alone for _six months_?" Kris suddenly looked up with a horrified glance.  
Sheik tightened his jaw. "Dani, please don't talk until we get to my airport."

Since that same day he had also as much as said that he could guarantee that they wouldn't get in trouble for running the match race, Kris and Dani were both a little bit nervous about trusting them. But like he'd said, they had absolutely nothing to lose.

"Hey, Kris? KRIS!"  
"Huh?" she woke with a start. She was sitting next to Dani on board Sheik's private plane. Everything that happened came back to her in a rush. The match race. The racing board taking her license. Jean kicking her out of Raintree. Her breaking up with Matt…  
"We're about to land," said Dani.  
"Thanks," mumbled Kris. She sat up and pulled on her seatbelt.  
"Look at this place!" said Dani.

Kris's jaw dropped when she glanced out the window where Dani was looking.  
"Is that a barn or a mansion?" asked Kris.  
"I don't know…" said Dani. The enormous building they were looking at looked from the top like it was a mansion, but it was surrounded on all sides with green pastures with horses in them. "Whatever it is, it sure makes Davis Farms and Raintree look like the dumps that they are."  
That made Kris feel sad all over again, and she knew that it made Dani feel sad, too. She wondered why Dani had left. It wasn't as if Ken and Junior could kick her out after she took the fall for them. Then she remembered what an angry person Dani was and it made sense.  
"Good morning," said Shiek Omar. "Did you ladies sleep well?" He sat down next to them and put on a seatbelt.  
"Yeah, thanks," said Kris.  
"Okay, I guess," said Danni. "Where are we?"  
"At my place, of course," said Shiek. "Where else?"

The plane slowly coasted to a stop, bringing into full view the beautiful garden surrounding the mansion that almost made it look normal. But each window had a horse's head sticking out of it, and the stalls opened out into luscious green pastures.

"_This_ is your barn?" asked Kris.

"It's my house," said O. "The horses just happen to live on the first floor. Come on, I'll show you both around."

"To say that this place is incredible would be an understatement," Kris admitted after having seen some of the first floor of Shiek's house. The two longest outside walls were lined with stalls, and in the middle there was one area for the servants' apartments, a huge tack room, a huge feed room, and several areas for exercising the horses.

"Glad you think so," said O. "I designed it myself. Why don't you look over there?"

"Here?" said Kris. Confused, she wandered in the direction of a stall he was pointing to that seemed to be empty. Suddenly, a tiny chestnut head peeked up over the door. "Flame!"

"Gillian sold him to me," said O. "You'll see a few more familiar faces around here as well. Jean sold all the horses to me but Wildfire." Before Kris could say anything, Sheik O pressed a button that caused an elevator door to open. "You can look around more later. For now I'll show you where you'll be staying." He pressed the elevator button and opened it so that they could all get on. "Oh, before I get, here are some maps in case you get lost."  
Danni opened hers right away. Kris barely noticed Danni's smile get bigger and her eyes grow wider with every second that she continued to look at the map. Any other day, Kris probably would have been just as excited. But today, all she wanted was to be waking up back at Raintree, in the bunkhouse with Matt, kiss him good morning, maybe eat breakfast up at the big house with him, Jean, and Todd, go down to the barn, and get Wildfire ready for a ride.  
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. "Okay Kris, your suite is over there to the left, Dani, yours is right next to it. You're both welcome to use the pool, the movie theater, or whatever else you want. If you have any questions, just ask one of the servants. They're supposed to be awake in about six minutes and thirty seven and a half seconds."

"Where are you going?" asked Kris.

"Come on, Dani," said O without really answering the question.

Once they'd gotten away ten feet down the hall, a servant of O's walked up to him. "Good morning, Mr. O'Hattan." Sheik O gave him the look. "Sorry. O. Welcome back. I have some rather important messages waiting for you."

"Dani, go wait in my office," said O. He walked off, somewhat rudely, with the servant, motioning to a room behind glass doors with brass handles. Dani entered the office carefully, noticing that the floor was made of plexie glass and underneath there was an aquarium. The whole office was filled with artifacts that looked like they were from all over the world, and the large hand-carved wooden desk was covered in trophies.

Suddenly, Dani noticed what else was on the desk: bills of sale of every single one of Raintree's horses, two of Davis's horses, and Flame. She was gawking at the numbers when O walked back in.

"Please stop looking at my papers," he snapped.

"You bought all those horses for _half a million dollars apiece_?" said Dani. "Most of them aren't worth half that much!"

"I did as compensation for Matt, Junior, and Gillian because I promised we wouldn't get caught and we did," said O. "Again, thanks to _you_. Since Kris doesn't own anything valuable but lost everything that really matters to her, it's going to take a bit more time to fix things for her."

Dani sighed. "Look, I'm really sorry that we got caught and you lost so much money, but…"

"I don't care about the money," O interrupted. "I care about why you called the police to stop the race."

"I was trying to save my own ass, okay?" snapped Dani. "Can you _blame _me? And if you haven't noticed, it didn't work."

"Are you sure you didn't do it to get rid of me?" asked O.

"Of course not!" said Dani. "Why would I do that? I was about to sign a multimillion dollar deal with you."

"Because you noticed I think you're hot?" said O, stepping slightly closer to her.

Dani froze. "I…you seriously think I'd blow a massive business deal for a reason like _that_?"

"Glad to hear you didn't," said O. "And by the way, I still think you're hot." He stroked her cheek with his right hand.

"You brought me out here to try and seduce me, didn't you?" said Dani.

"Do you seriously think I'd give you a ride on my private jet and bring you to my private estate for a reason like that?" asked O. "No. I brought you out here because as long as you're out of a job anyway, I'd like to hire you to be my office manager. You would live here, attend teleconferences in my place with clients, investors and the like, and field phone calls. Your monthly income would be in the six figures."

"Sounds tempting," said Dani. "But I only work for people who I can trust."

"And I only hire people who I can trust," said O. "You get a week to think about it. In the meantime, enjoy the estate. I have to go take off now. Business meeting in Kentucky." Then without a proper goodbye, he left.

Dani made her way over to the bedroom she knew she'd be staying in next to Kris's.  
Both rooms looked like they came out of some exotic five star hotel. The bedding, curtains, and other things in their rooms were of the finest quality-but none of them looked like they were bought in the same country. They also each had their own bathroom with a shower and with a hot tub instead of a bathtub.

Danni flopped down on her French featherbed and turned on the big screen TV. This was much better than the TV back at Davis Farms. This room was much better than her room back at Davis farms. Then she grinned "Junior or Dad would kill to be here right now," she mumbled to herself as she sank down into her fluffy mattress. "Their lives suck compared to mine now. They're the ones who are suffering."

In her room, Kris sat down in a huge fluffy armchair and closed her eyes. In her mind she was out on the track with Wildfire and Matt. Maybe Matt was reading her mind, although for once, she didn't need him to. She knew exactly what she was thinking: that all she wanted was to be back at Raintree. She couldn't imagine being or belonging anyplace else.

It was business as usual back at Davis Farms-at least as far as Ken Davis went. Junior was constantly off with Gillian, driving that Porsche all around the state looking for Kris and Dani. "Hey, son where are you going this time?"  
"I wish I knew," said Junior.  
"Look, this is getting ridiculous," said Ken. "They're not dead, okay? They're big girls, they'll come back eventually, and in the meantime, we have a race to prepare for."  
"No, you have a race to prepare for," said Junior. "I have to go look for my sister and Kris, and Gillian's in the car waiting."  
"Wait!" said Ken. Junior ignored him and was out the door. Ken sighed. Just when he finally thought that Junior was home for good, this had to happen. Of all the girls Junior had to suddenly be spending all his time with, why Gillian? Gillian, who's father still wanted to turn Davis Farms into condos and a shopping mall!  
Oh well. Better her than Kris.  
"Hey, Pablo?" said Ken. "I'm sending some guys to the tack store, do you need anything?"  
"Hold on one second," said Pablo. "Sorry, just leaving another message on Kris's answering machine."  
"Oh god, not you too," mumbled Ken. Just then, he saw the Raintree truck pulling up. Jean got out and came over. "Hey Ken, how are you?"  
"Ah, I'm okay," said Ken. "Both my kids are being stubborn, but that's nothing new."  
"Know what that feels like," said Jean quickly. "Mine just took over Raintree."  
"What?" said Pablo.  
"Yeah, you heard me," said Jean. "I suggested that Todd go to boarding school and Matt and I open up a dude ranch, and Matt lost it. He's coming over to get Wildfire in an hour, and Todd is going to help him look for some new horses to bring to Raintree this afternoon."  
"Can't you stop him?" asked Ken.  
"Technically no, I can't," said Jean. "He's half-owner of Raintree, so he can spend the money and do whatever else he wants. It's really making me nervous."  
"Obviously, you're going to have to compromise and come up with some sort of agreement with him," said Pablo.  
"Apparently, yes," said Jean. "Oh by the way, Ken, Matt wanted to me to ask you if you've heard anything about Dani or Kris."  
"No, I haven't," Ken nearly snapped. "Why are we all standing around and talking about them, anyway? Don't all three of us have work to do?"


End file.
